ORAU TEAM

Dose Reconstruction

Project for NIOSH

Oak Ridge Associated Universities I Dade Moeller & Associates I MJW Corporation

Page 1 of 5

Document Title:

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory –

Occupational Environmental Dose

Document Number: ORAUT-TKBS-0027-4

Revision: 01

Effective Date: 07/30/2007

Type of Document TBD

Supersedes: Revision 00

Subject Expert(s): James M. O’Brien, Jr.

Site Expert(s): N/A

Approval: Signature on File Approval Date: 07/27/2007

Edward D. Scalsky, Document Owner

Concurrence: Signature on File Concurrence Date: 07/26/2007

John M. Byrne, Task 3 Manager

Concurrence: Signature on File Concurrence Date: 07/26/2007

Edward F. Maher, Task 5 Manager

Concurrence: Signature on File Concurrence Date: 07/27/2007

Kate Kimpan, Project Director

Approval: Brant A. Ulsh Signature on File for Approval Date: 07/30/2007

James W. Neton, Associate Director for Science

 New Total Rewrite Revision Page Change

FOR DOCUMENTS MARKED AS A TOTAL REWRITE, REVISION, OR PAGE CHANGE, REPLACE THE PRIOR 

REVISION AND DISCARD / DESTROY ALL COPIES OF THE PRIOR REVISION.
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0027-4 Revision No. 01 Effective Date: 07/30/2007 Page 2 of 5

PUBLICATION RECORD

EFFECTIVE 

DATE

REVISION 

NUMBER DESCRIPTION

08/12/2005 00 New technical basis document for the Pacific Northwest National 

Laboratory – Occupational Environmental Dose. First approved 

issue. Training required: As determined by the Task Manager. 

Initiated by Edward D. Scalsky.

07/30/2007 01 Approved Revision 01 initiated to include Attributions and 

Annotations. Constitutes a total rewrite of the document. Training 

required: As determined by the Task Manager. Initiated by Edward 

D. Scalsky.
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0027-4 Revision No. 01 Effective Date: 07/30/2007 Page 3 of 5

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION TITLE

4.1 Introduction.................................................................................................................................

PAGE

4

4.2 Attributions and Annotations .......................................................................................................5

Reference............................................................................................................................................5
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0027-4 Revision No. 01 Effective Date: 07/30/2007 Page 4 of 5

4.1 INTRODUCTION

Technical basis documents and site profile documents are not official determinations made by the 

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) but are rather general working 

documents that provide historic background information and guidance to assist in the preparation of 

dose reconstructions at particular sites or categories of sites. They will be revised in the event 

additional relevant information is obtained about the affected site(s). These documents may be used 

to assist NIOSH staff in the completion of the individual work required for each dose reconstruction.

In this document the word “facility” is used as a general term for an area, building, or group of 

buildings that served a specific purpose at a site. It does not necessarily connote an “atomic weapons 

employer facility” or a “Department of Energy [DOE] facility” as defined in the Energy Employees 

Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act [EEOICPA; 42 U.S.C. § 7384l(5) and (12)]. 

EEOICPA defines a DOE facility as “any building, structure, or premise, including the grounds upon 

which such building, structure, or premise is located ... in which operations are, or have been, 

conducted by, or on behalf of, the Department of Energy (except for buildings, structures, premises, 

grounds, or operations ... pertaining to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program)” [42 U.S.C. § 

7384l(12)]. Accordingly, except for the exclusion for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program noted 

above, any facility that performs or performed DOE operations of any nature whatsoever is a DOE 

facility encompassed by EEOICPA.

For employees of DOE or its contractors with cancer, the DOE facility definition only determines 

eligibility for a dose reconstruction, which is a prerequisite to a compensation decision (except for 

members of the Special Exposure Cohort). The compensation decision for cancer claimants is based 

on a section of the statute entitled “Exposure in the Performance of Duty.” That provision [42 U.S.C. § 

7384n(b)] says that an individual with cancer “shall be determined to have sustained that cancer in the 

performance of duty for purposes of the compensation program if, and only if, the cancer ... was at 

least as likely as not related to employment at the facility [where the employee worked], as 

determined in accordance with the [probability of causation1

As noted above, the statute includes a definition of a DOE facility that excludes “buildings, structures, 

premises, grounds, or operations covered by Executive Order No. 12344, dated February 1, 1982 (42

U.S.C. 7158 note), pertaining to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program” [42 U.S.C. § 7384l(12)].

While this definition contains an exclusion with respect to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, the 

section of EEOICPA that deals with the compensation decision for covered employees with cancer 

[i.e., 42 U.S.C. § 7384n(b), entitled “Exposure in the Performance of Duty”] does not contain such an 

exclusion. Therefore, the statute requires NIOSH to include all occupationally derived radiation 

exposures at covered facilities in its dose reconstructions for employees at DOE facilities, including 

radiation exposures related to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. As a result, all internal and 

external dosimetry monitoring results are considered valid for use in dose reconstruction. No efforts 

are made to determine the eligibility of any fraction of total measured exposure for inclusion in dose 

reconstruction. NIOSH, however, does not consider the following exposures to be occupationally 

derived:

] guidelines established under subsection 

(c) ...” [42 U.S.C. § 7384n(b)]. Neither the statute nor the probability of causation guidelines (nor the 

dose reconstruction regulation) define “performance of duty” for DOE employees with a covered 

cancer or restrict the “duty” to nuclear weapons work.

• Radiation from naturally occurring radon present in conventional structures

 1 The U.S. Department of Labor is ultimately responsible under the EEOICPA for determining the probability of 

causation (POC).
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0027-4 Revision No. 01 Effective Date: 07/30/2007 Page 5 of 5

• Radiation from diagnostic X-rays received in the treatment of work-related injuries

The Environmental program at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is the same 

program that existed at Hanford subsequent to 01/03/1965 when Battelle Memorial Institute (BMI) 

assumed responsibility for operation of the Hanford Laboratories and certain Hanford-wide services 

and functions as part of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) operations at the Hanford site. Since 

that is the case, it has been determined that any dose reconstructions that incorporate the dose 

received by PNNL employees as a result of exposure to radiation from environmental releases will be 

determined based on the programs described in the corresponding Hanford TBD, Hanford Site –

Occupational Environmental Dose (ORAUT 2007).

4.2 ATTRIBUTIONS AND ANNOTATIONS

All information requiring identification was addressed in ORAUT (2007).

REFERENCE

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2007, Hanford Site – Occupational Environmental 

Dose, ORAUT-TKBS-0006-4, Rev. 02, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, June 5.